Take out your notebook!

NEATLY write your first NEATLY write your first and last name on a and last name on a

popsicle stick (they are popsicle stick (they are at the front of the room!at the front of the room!

Branches of Science

Life Science– Biology– Zoology– Botany

Physical Science– Chemistry– Physics

Earth Science– Geology– Meteorology– Astronomy– Oceanography

Critical Thinking and Scientific Thinking

• Much of the knowledge that has been accumulated in the sciences as well as other disciplines follows a logical series of steps.

• This series of steps has arisen from the application of critical thinking skills to problem solving

• While you probably already use these problem solving steps to problems in your own life – in this class, we will refer to them as “The Scientific Method”

What would you do?

Pick a scenario and write down the detailed steps you could take to arrive at a possible solution. It may help to draw a concept map!

1.Halfway through your drive to work, your car starts to make a squealing sound.

2.Your fishing on Montrose Beach early one morning and notice you aren’t catching anything.

• Make decision to pull over or keep going

• Check under the hood – are things running correctly?

1. Check type of bait

2. Check weather

1. Check online forums

2. Change rod to fly rod

1. Change bait

2. Change location

3. Distance of cast

1. Ask local fisherman abt good locations

2. Check bait

3. Increase patience

4. Try a different time of day

Scientific Method

• What is the scientific method?– It is a standardize procedure used to

determine if a Hypothesis/Experiment is correct.

• It is used by all scientists• What is the advantage of this

standardized process?

What are the steps of the scientific method?

• Observe - • Purpose• Hypothesis• Experiment• Analysis• Conclusion (Revisit the hypothesis)

• Theory• Law

Using the process

• Observation– gathering information using the

senses

Make:1 observation and1 inferenceAbout the pic to the left

Question/Purpose

• Defining the problem– What do I want to know?– What might an option be to solve this

particular problem?

Constructing the Hypothesis

• Educated guess as to the relationship between 2 variables (independent/dependent variable)

• Formed using:– observations/inferences research, prior

knowledge

• Usually constructed as an “If…, then…” statement

• MUST be testable and measurable

Experimental Design

• “Controlled” experiment– Everything is the same in all groups except

the factor you are testing

• Independent variable– Factor being tested – Ask yourself: What am I changing between

each group?

• Dependent variable– Factor scientists measure– Ask yourself: What was measured in each

group? What changed on it’s own?

Experimental Design

• Experimental group– Group(s) with different levels of the independent

variable

• Control group– Group to compare results to– “Normal” conditions– Sometimes lacking the independent variable

Experiment, cont.

• Data– Qualitative: descriptive, words– Quantitative: measurements,

numbers– Data should be taken using the

metric system!

• Example:– # of students not wearing IDs

during each class period• What are we testing?• Variables?• Data?

Results

• ResultsResults– Organize data into tables– Run calculations (if necessary)– Create graphs to show relationships

and correlations between the data

Conclusion

• AnalysisAnalysis

– Answer questions to interpret relationship of data

– What does the data “tell” you?

• Is my hypothesis supported or rejected?

– If yesIf yes: once repeated and evaluated several times – the correlation may become a scientific theory

– If noIf no: Why not?

• Error analysis

• Incorrect assumption

Theory

• Well tested explanation that unifies a broad range of observations

• Never proven to be true, but can be disproved